“You’re Sold!”

Trump Tower “apprentice” sells his three-bedroom graystone

By Dennis Rodkin

Published July 16, 2009

GOLDCOASTLIST PRICE: $4.5 millionSALE PRICE: $3.595 million

Bill Rancic, the Chicagoan who won the first season of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice—and, as a reward, got a job working on Trump Tower Chicago—has sold the century-old Gold Coast row house he bought in 2007.

Now a motivational speaker, real-estate developer, cigar-company owner, and host of the A&E show We Mean Business, Rancic bought the three-bedroom graystone for $1.5 million in July 2007; two months later, on the isle of Capri, he married Giuliana DePandi of E! Entertainment Television. The couple gave the house a gut renovation, which included removing an old elevator and some additions to the façade. “[My husband] did all the work,” Giuliana Rancic told an interviewer in February. “I just picked out the furniture.” Bill Rancic told the same interviewer that he liked the house’s location because of its proximity to Oak Street Beach, where he and his wife enjoy running. They also have a home in Los Angeles.

It is not known how much the renovations cost; Rancic did not respond to requests for an interview about the sale, and his sales agent, Laura Rubin of Baird & Warner, also declined to talk. John and Evonne Yonover bought the house in March. John Yonover, the president of Indiana Sugars, declined requests for an interview.